Years ago, I found myself sitting in law school in Moot Court wearing an oversized itchy blue suit. It was a horrible experience. In a desperate attempt to avoid anything like that in the future I enrolled in a tax course. I loved it. I signed up for another. Before I knew it, in addition to my JD, I had a LL.M Taxation. I needed only to don my cape…. taxgirl® was born. Today, I live and work in Philadelphia, PA, one of the best cities in the world (I can't even complain about the sports teams these days). I landed in the City of Brotherly Love by way of Temple University School of Law. While at law school, I interned at the estates attorney division of the IRS. At IRS, I participated in the review and audit of federal estate tax returns. I even took the lead on a successful audit. At audit, opposing counsel read my report, looked at his file and said, “Gentlemen, she’s exactly right.” I nearly fainted. It was a short jump from there to practicing, teaching, writing and breathing tax.

Create a Backup Set of Records Electronically. This is good advice in all cases. You should have a backup system stored safely away from your original set of data. This would include not only tax returns but bank statements and copies of other financial information (more about which records to keep and for how long here). The IRS accepts scans – and has since 1997 – so long as they meet the same criteria as original records (legible, sufficient and easily available).

Document Valuables. Consider documenting the contents of your room or office by writing down what you have and, ideally, taking photos or videos of your belongings (again, keep that information in a safe location). This comes in handy not only for insurance claims but for proving property damage and casualty losses on your tax returns, if appropriate.

Update Emergency Plans. In the event of an emergency, you’ll want to have a strategy for mitigating damage and working to resolve issues quickly – especially if you are a small business owner. That plan should include how to meet filing deadlines and protect contemporaneous records – as well as recording and reporting damage. You should share relevant pieces of the plan with your key employees and keep in mind that as employees come and go, you may need to continue to update the plan.

The IRS does have specialists on hand that are trained to handle disaster-related issues. If you need to talk with the IRS about such an issue, you can call 1-866-562-5227. But act immediately: I have a number of clients who lost records due to flooding years ago and are now struggling to recreate returns and receipts for purposes of examination and appeals. It can be frustrating and expensive to be in that situation. Taking proactive steps now – combined with timely reactions immediately after a disaster – can keep a bad situation from turning worse.

Those of us who have grown up near storm-prone areas tend to develop tricks for muddling through storm seasons (my mom figured out how to bake a cake on the porch using a propane tank). Since we’re in the midst of hurricane season (it started June 1), I thought it would be fun for my readers to share tips for making it through a bad storm. It could be a list of your best “emergency kit” items; how to keep the kids occupied when the power goes out or how to keep your documents safe from water damage. It doesn’t have to be business or tax related (though clearly, I’d love to hear those, too). I’ll choose one random winner from all of the entries to receive a large mixed nut sampler from Nuts.com.

Here are some more rules because, as you know, I’m a lawyer and I like rules:

Entries must be posted in the comments section for this blog post in the space below by 11:59 p.m. EST August 2, 2012.

While I love my twitter followers and my Facebook fans, responses on twitter or Facebook will not be included for purposes of the contest. Ditto for emails. Comments have to show at this post below.

Don’t panic if your comment doesn’t show immediately. If it goes to moderation because, for example, you’re new here, the time stamp on your comment is what counts.

You can enter as many times as you like but you must leave a different tip each time you comment.

My normal comment policy applies (you can read it here). No offensive language, no trash talk, no spam. I have standards, you know. Offensive comments or comments that otherwise violate the comment policy will not be considered valid for purposes of the giveaway.

Pingbacks and other links will be disregarded for purposes of the giveaway.

I have to be able to contact you. That means you have to register with Forbes.com using a valid email address. I won’t publish your email address but I do need contact information for the winning entry.

Due to shipping considerations, only United States addresses, please. Sorry, Canada, eh?

I respect your privacy and I will not send you anything unrelated to your entry in this contest.

By entering the contest, you agree that I may post any part or all of your submission including your name as a part of the contest announcements or promotions, with the exception of your email address.

Finally, the giveaway is about me, me, me. It’s not affiliated with or endorsed by Forbes. So leave them out of it, okay?

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In addition to your bottled water storage, my tip is to fill empty bleach and/or laundry soap bottles with water. (The bigger the better) Clearly label them non-potable! They are to be used or handwashing or other cleaning tasks that you wouldn’t want to waste precious drinking water on in the aftermath of a storm where you may not have water or be under a boil alert.

Disaster survivors lack their basic policyholder rights and vital information in their time of need, when they are most vulnerable. We nearly all carry disaster insurance…why shouldn’t crucial information reach us before too late in a state of shock? It should, and now it does. www.DisasterPrepared.net/content

When my daughter was two months old we lived in Williamsburg, VA and had a horrible ice storm. All of the electricity went out. A bit of a challenge with a new born. I waited long enough for them to clear the main roads and went to North Carolina to stay with my brother. Funny how looking back I realize I brought very little with me. In a time of trouble all I thought of was my baby.

For beating the heat, I discovered a peppermint salt scrub chills you down like nothing else! Came in from working in the yard, jumped in the shower, decided to use it simply for the smell, and voila, next thing I knew I was practically freezing!

When I lived in Houston, I went through two hurricanes. After doing the “standard” preparations, we took our toddler and drove inland to friends. We told the scared little ones it was a “hurricane party” and plopped them down AWAY from the TV with piles of toys and a teenage sitter. Grownups kept tabs on the storm with a card game in front of the TV and with, of course, tall icy hurricane drinks.

A few winters ago we had the mother of all ice storms here in Oklahoma, and lost power. Luckily for us, we had a gas furnace fireplace. We set up “camp” in the living room with it along with sleeping bags, blankets and pillows (more warming goodness). We were concerned about carbon monoxide so we double-checked all our fireplace documentation to make sure we had it properly ventilated first. And also luckily for us, our power came back on after a day.

Living in Oklahoma also has its tornado challenges. We pay very close attention to the warnings on TV. We also signed up for local TV station’s notification service–they call you if your home is directly in the path of a possible approaching tornado with usually 15-30 minutes head start. We keep a small box to grab on the way out the door that we’ve got the pre-designated family pics and very important papers not in safe deposit box (make sure you know EXACTLY where those are so no scrambling), and then drive AWAY from the tornado direction at a right-angle.

And lastly (maybe), the tax pro in me would be remiss if I didn’t say something tax-oriented. If you have a few days warning (hurricane, ice storm, etc) see if you can get an appraiser out to appraise your property for filing the casualty loss form with your tax return. Second, with plenty of warning or only 30-60 minutes warning, you need pics of the “before” of your home and possessions, If only 30-60 minutes to deal with, get everyone snapping away a pic of their bedroom with their cell phone, another room on the way out the door, and the car before you jump in it or abandon it. If only 15 minutes warning – FORGET IT! After the disaster, call the appraiser back for a return visit, make more pics before you or anyone else touches anything. Keep all your receipts of your repairs, even if your repairs overlap into the next tax year. Write down everything you can remember out the disaster. Keep copies of any news articles discussing the effect of the disaster and the estimated damage to the area. If declared a national disaster, go online and print out that declaration and keep it, too. Overboard? Maybe, but it just saved my client $36,000.